Archives for April 2018

Certain Songs #1201: The Moody Blues – “Legend of a Mind”

April 30, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: In Search of The Lost Chord
Year: 1968

At least partially because I never could stand “Nights in White Satin,” which seemed to be played on every damn radio station ever and always, I never quite grokked the epic silliness of The Moody Blues.

That said, when most of their other singles came on the radios, rockers like “Ride My See-Saw” and “Question” or even “Tuesday Afternoon,” I enjoyed them enough to at some point take a flyer on their two-disc best-of This is The Moody Blues during my mini-prog phase in 1977-1978.

Certain Songs #1200: Monty Python – “Spam Song”

April 29, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Another Monty Python Record
Year: 1971

I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t believe it when I discovered that I didn’t have to wait until they made a film or our local PBS station did another round of re-runs, but that I could buy actual record albums of Monty Python material!

Even better, instead of being just audio versions of the sketches people might have seen on Monty Python’s Flying Circus, everything on their non-soundtrack albums was recorded specifically for the albums.

Certain Songs #1199: Montrose – “Space Station #5”

April 28, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Montrose
Year: 1973

There’s a small little area of L.A. north of where I live called Montrose, and every single time we drive by the exit for it on the 210, I make the devil horns and whoop “MONNNNN-TROSE!!” in honor of an album that was a staple of my teenage years.

Clearly one of the blueprints for the formula that made Van Halen global superstars (my beloved UFO was the other), Montrose was an fusion of big-ass riffs, dumb-ass lyrics and catchy songs. With an origin story not so different from Led Zeppelin’s — big session guitarist & bassist plus unknowns — Montrose featured Ronnie Montrose’s inventive guitar and the monster voice of a then unknown Sammy Hagar.

Certain Songs #1198: Monsoon – “You Can’t Take Me With You”

April 27, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Third Eye
Year: 1983

After Monsoon disbanded, Sheila Chandra went on to a pretty successful career in world music, initially backed by Steve Coe & Martin Smith, who were the guys from Monsoon, but I only ever heard 1984’s Out on My Own, which I remember being surprised at disliking, but it was too much pop, and lacked the balance of Third Eye.

After that, I lost the plot, and while I was happy to discover that Chandra has had a long and pretty successful career — including a pair of songs in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers — I was subsequently saddened to learn that in the past few years she had contracted a disease that effectively rendered her mute, which is sad, to say the least.

Certain Songs #1197: Monsoon – “Ever So Lonely”

April 26, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Third Eye
Year: 1982

Like The Monkees, Monsoon was a band that was assembled in the studio, as opposed to organically growing in the wild. And like The Monkees, Monsoon had a huge Beatles influence.

That’s where the similarities end, though: whereas The Monkees were all about Americanizing that A Hard Day’s Night vibe, Monsoon had an concept that grew from George Harrison’s sitar experiments on Revolver & Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: what if Western pop music, but made with Indian instrumentation?

Certain Songs #1196: The Monkees – “Me And Magdalena (Version 2)”

April 25, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Good Times!
Year: 2016

And suddenly, it was 50 years later.

Well not suddenly, of course: a lot of things had happened in that time. Head. Peter Tork leaving the band. Mike Nesmith’s solo career and video mogulship. MTV spurring a revival and reunion tour. (And that unfortunate incident where I taped over a Tom Waits concert that Kirk had recorded in order to snag the MTV episodes.) Davy Jones dying.

And, of course, the occasional reunion albums: 1987’s Nesmith-less Pool It! and 1996’s totally-written-and-performed-by-the-band Justus, neither of which I heard, because snobbery.

Certain Songs #1195: The Monkees – “Daydream Believer”

April 24, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees
Year: 1968

One of the many ironies about The Monkees was that their least photogenic guy was their best singer by miles, which kinda undercut the “American Beatles” vibe they were going for, as manifested by the casting of an actual Brit, David Jones, as “the cute one,” Davy.

There was another David Jones on the British rock scene in the mid-1960s, but the story has always been that to avoid any kind of confusion between the two David Joneses — though there wasn’t ever any confusion a decade later between Mick Jones of The Clash & Mick Jones of Foreigner — he changed his last name to “Bowie,” which led me to wonder: forget Stephen Stills, what would The Monkees as both a TV show and a band been like had the other David Jones tried out?

Certain Songs #1194: The Monkees – “Pleasant Valley Sunday”

April 23, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
Year: 1967

Like everything else during The Monkees imperial phase, the pace at which they released singles moved at the speed of light: Gerry Goffin & Carole King’s “Pleasant Valley Sunday” was their fourth Top 5 U.S. single in less than a year, and — following on from the artistic freedom they wrested for Headquarters — it was the first one where actual Monkees contributed significantly to the musical mix.

So that’s Mike Nesmith playing the jangling guitar hook that kicks the song off and anchors it throughout, and the piano hook on the long, arching bridge was played by Peter Tork. And Davy Jones, um, played the maracas, and along with Nesmith, provided the backing vocals.

Certain Songs #1193: The Monkees – “For Pete’s Sake”

April 22, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Headquarters
Year: 1967

Artistic freedom! Asked for and answered!!

Life comes at you fast when you’re at the top of the pop world, and on their third album in six months, The Monkees got what they’d been asking for from the start: the chance to write for and play on their own records. So they tossed Don Kirshner out on his ass, and with a core group of Mike Nesmith & Peter Tork on various guitars & keyboards, Mickey Dolenz on drums and Davy Jones on, let’s say, percussion, they set out to record their third album, Headquarters.

Certain Songs #1192: The Monkees – “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”

April 21, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: More of the Monkees
Year: 1966

Definitely the only song to ever have been covered by The Monkees and The Sex Pistols — though it woulda been fun to hear the Monkees take on “No Fun” or “Substitute” — the garage-y rave-up “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” was actually given by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart to proto-Monkees Paul Revere & The Raiders first.

But for some reason — probably because they were too busy churning out classics like “Just Like Me” and “Kicks” — The Raiders never released it as a single, so The Monkees recorded it, stuck it on the b-side of “I’m a Believer” and it became a hit on its own recognizance, making #20 on the U.S. charts and #1 in Canada, where the Monkees were even more popular than they were here in the States. Though not popular enough, I guess, for Rush to include any Monkees song on their all-1960s-covers album, Feedback.